


Surprise

by Davechicken



Series: The Pilot and his Knight [18]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 23:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6303523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/pseuds/Davechicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keeping secrets from Force-sensitives is never easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Surprise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ThisPricklyBitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisPricklyBitch/gifts).



It’s the day before Kylo’s birthday, and Poe is terrible at keeping secrets. It doesn’t help that Kylo can _literally_ see inside of his head, but his lover usually asks permission, or skims through surface emotion, rather than prods and pokes needlessly. But Poe thinks so _loudly_ when he’s excited that he’s been trying his hardest to appear nonchalant.

Like. Super hard. At being cool. Which is impossible, because the minute you want to try something really hard, it becomes unchill. And then if you start thinking white noise, even that becomes loud. 

And if he _goes missing_ , like, just for a day - well Kylo will wonder why _that_ , too. He makes Rey and Finn come up with some reason he’s needed (working on her speederbike, or something) which gets him an afternoon away, and he turns up with his arms full of supplies.

“…really?”  


“Yes,” he insists, as he waddles into the kitchen area, dropping flour and - _oh no not the eggs_ \- and everything out onto the counter.   


“You need all that just to make a cake?” Rey is confused.   


“…you’ve never made a cake before, have you?”  


“The ones in the packets where you add water and heat them.”  


“…those are not real cakes,” Poe insists, his pride stung. “A real cake is full of love and eggs and butter and flour.”  


“It tasted okay?”  


“Yes, but this has to taste _better_ than okay, alright? I don’t know the last time Kylo had a birthday at **all**.” Which is why he’s taking this so seriously, of course. He wants to make up for all those missing years, all those days when Kylo’s age ratcheted up one more notch with no one there to witness it, just a digit increasing by one on a HR system. Or a mother and father and best friend looking up at the stars and wondering.  


“Can I help?” Rey is fascinated by the whole affair, he can tell. And he _is_ using her kitchen, so… 

“You can stir it. Can you get out the scales?”  


“The scales?”  


Maker have mercy. Poe pulls out each thing in turn and explains them to her. She’s been cooking, but not _baking_ , and it’s an artform he’s going to have to teach her in. For now, he has her working on the easier elements, the ones she can’t mess up. Because this is too important to mess up, alright?

“So you get a cake every year?”   


Sweet, desert child. Poe is going to adopt them all. Rey, Finn, and not forgetting his own, too-tall boyfriend. They all need smothering with affection of some form or another. Can you adopt sisters and brothers? Maybe his dad will adopt them for him. “Yep. And gifts. And a nice meal. And anything you want, really. It’s kind of like a ‘spoil you’ day.”

“Should I get him something?”  


Poe pauses. “…if you want to?”

“I do. What do you get people?”  


“…well, it depends on the person. Some like holos, some like chocolates, some like bike parts…”  


“What did you get him?”  


Poe blushes at the question, as he points and guides her through pouring the batter into the cake tin. “I… uh. It’s… silly, really.”

“I don’t think anything you do is silly,” she chides him.  


“…when… when I was a kid… I used to have an old X-Wing toy. I mean. I still have it. It was… we used to play together. When we were _really_ young. I… painted it up in my colours, and got a little BB-8 for it, so he… so he can look at it when I’m not around.”   


This sounds terribly egotistical to admit, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. Or it isn’t _meant_ to be. The old toy has so many memories, and it meant so much to his younger self, that he wants Kylo to have it. A reminder of their shared past, their life-long bond. 

“It sounds really nice, he’ll love it,” Rey tells him.  


“And… I got him something else.” He slips a hand into his pocket, and pulls out a little velvet bag. “I’m a bit worried about it. It’s…”  


She holds out her hands, and he tips them out. Inside are two matching sets of what look like dog tags, but which are clearly of precious metal instead of the normal alloys. On one side is Kylo’s identification and details, and on the other, Poe’s. “Sort of… a ‘this is me’ and ‘if lost please return to’,” he mumbles, as she examines them.

“He’s going to love them,” she says, and slips them back into the bag.  


“You think so?”  


“I know so. I think… hmm. I think I’m going to get him some flowers.”  


“Flowers?”  


“He’s lived on spaceships for how long? Of course he wants flowers.”  


Poe laughs. “You know what, you’re probably right.” His Ben - way back when - had always loved it out in the wilds. They’d spent long hours bouncing between trees and playing heroes together. He always seemed so alive, there.

“I’ll tell Finn. He’ll get him something useful, like a utility knife. A really good one.”  


Poe grins. “He’ll like _that_ , too.” But really, he’s sure Kylo will appreciate the gestures, more than anything else. He slips the little bag back into his pocket, and looks at the oven. 

“What do we do when it’s baked?” Rey asks.  


“We decorate it. I was thinking we could cover it in chocolate, and maybe draw on it? I’m not very artistic, so I was thinking stick figures and lovehearts?”  


“Can we write on it?”  


“…sure?” Poe grabs the decorations box. “I got glitter, and thin icing pens, and weird shape cut-out things. We can probably get some planets and stars and spaceships out of it.”  


“Let’s put them _all_ on,” Rey says, her eyes suddenly mad with power.  


Poe is glad he knows how to bake. At least it will taste good, no matter how badly they decorate it. When it cools enough to ice, he lathers on as much as he can, as Rey continues to lick the spoon and the bowl. The base frosting goes on thickly, and his stomach hurts just thinking about eating this.

Which means he’s done it right. 

When that’s cooled and dried, he pulls out the sparkles.

“Ready?”  


“Ready.”  


By the time they’re finished, Poe has edible glitter _everywhere_ , and Rey’s kitchen looks like a bomb’s hit it. A really… friendly bomb. He laughs, and stands back, proudly.

“You need to bring him here, tomorrow,” Rey announces. “To eat it. Keep it here, and the presents. Just… drag him along.”  


“You sure?”  


“Of course I’m sure.”  


Poe wipes a smear of pink from the side of her cheek. “What did we do to deserve friends like you?”

“Well. It’s not entirely selfless. This way, I get to have cake, too.”  


Poe laughs, and goes to clean up the worst of the sticky in the ‘fresher.

Keeping this a secret is getting harder by the minute. 


End file.
